Following the Yankees’ 3-2 loss to the Tampa Bay Rays on Saturday afternoon, manager Aaron Boone and some players spoke about a number of topics…
Ryan Yarbrough gives Yanks what they needed
With the sudden scratch of Clarke Schmidt on Saturday, Yarbrough was tasked with being the team’s opener against the Rays. The bulk reliever is used to pitching multiple innings, but Boone was very happy with the results.
The left-hander allowed just one run on one hit and three walks in four innings. It was a season-high four innings for Yarbrough, who had a sac fly from Taylor Walls in the second inning to thank for the lone run allowed.
“I tried to convince [Boone] to get me into the fifth there, especially with a bullpen game,” Yarbrough said after the game. “Just really giving those guys some time off, especially when you have a day that you don’t really necessarily expect early on. We were there to pick each other up and just tried to go as deep as I could.”
“I thought he did great. Walked a couple of leadoff hitters, which wasn’t ideal, had a few walks in there. But going into the day, if you said four innings, one run. Sign us up, all day long. He gave us exactly what we needed. Gave us a chance and put us in a good position to win a game. Unfortunately, just couldn’t get to the finish line today.”
Mark Leiter Jr. gives up lead
The Yankees were up 2-1 heading into the eighth inning when Leiter Jr. came in. The hard-throwing right-hander was a bit unlucky in that inning. After allowing a leadoff hit to Christopher Morel — on a play that was just out of the reach of Anthony Volpe — Brandon Lowe walked. He struck out Junior Caminero before a Curtis Mead bloop single tied the game and then a Volpe error pushed across the go-ahead run.
Boone, after the game, applauded the Rays’ hitters, especially Lowe and Mead for getting to Leiter Jr.’s well-executed pitches, but
“I thought he threw the ball alright. Just a couple of balls that had eyes,” Boone said.
Jazz Chisholm Jr. surprised by MRI
Chisholm was placed on the IL on Friday with a high-grade oblique strain. Boone expects Chisholm to be out 4-6 weeks, but when the infielder was asked how he felt in the Orioles series earlier in the week, he believed he would be back in a few days.
“I’m very surprised [by the results], just depending on how my body feels and how I feel personally,” Chisholm said after Saturday’s game. “This is the second time I had an oblique. This feels completely different from the first one. So, for me, I was super surprised when I saw the results.”
Chisholm revealed that there were three different tears in his oblique, which made him more surprised.
“That’s why I’m really surprised by what [the tests] said,” he said. “It doesn’t feel like three, doesn’t feel as bad as when I tore my oblique two years ago.”
Chisholm is having an up-and-down 2025 with the Yanks. He has launched an impressive seven homers, but his batting average (.181) and OBP remain low (.304).
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